I know most of the products I used to use before adopting Joey, my eastern rosella, are now out but just need to hear what other people use instead.

White vinegar has been recommended for cage cleaning & I know it can be used for general household cleaning too. But what else can be used? And can white vinegar be used right where the bird is without moving them to another cage? Neat or dilute?

I have laminate flooring in my living room & ceramic kitchen floor tiles. I used to use products specially formulated for cleaning these surfaces and giving them a shine. Sometimes i would add a little bleach too. What do i use now? Is ordinary detergent (washing up liquid) safe? Anything else for floor cleaning? (I also have a 2yr old human baby who likes to spill things on my floors a lot!)

What about using cleaning products in other rooms of the house, such as bedrooms & bathrooms? For eg. if I put a little bleach or floor cleaner in my mop bucket to mop my bathroom floor upstairs (Joey is downstairs in the living room), closed the bathroom door behind me and opened the window wide - would it still be a potential hazard?I have glass doors on my shower and the ony product I've ever found to get it really clean & rmove watermarks etc is Cillit Bang (not sure if this is a uk only product) - I know this is a definite no-no now, so what do you use on these tough jobs?

I just need some info on how others clean their houses (if you do lol!) so I can find new safe ways of doing things. Examples of how you get certain things clean would be great - eg. I get my glass shower doors sparkling clean with....

We are extremely paranoid about cleaners and polishes. I doubt that cleaning other rooms with commercial cleaners would be safe; since central heating/cooling would distribute the fumes. We have ceiling exhaust fans in the bathrooms, so I have used drain cleaner products and just closed the door and vented the air outside for hours afterward. I use diluted vinegar, slightly diluted and straight hydrogen peroxide and Grapefruit Seed Extract in water to clean the cages and tile in my bird room. I use wood fragments (always available for some reason) to scrub the hardened droppings off the cage grate.I use Bar Keeper’s Friend Cleansing Powder to clean the shower and glass in the bathroom. Its active ingredient is Oxalic Acid (found in Rhubarb) which doesn’t produce harmful fumes (unless heated above 100 degrees Centigrade). It is toxic for birds if eaten so I don’t use it around their cages.My wife uses a mix of lemon juice, mineral oil, or linseed oil and vinegar to polish the furniture.I use a canister steam cleaner for the oven and have used it on the cages too.We use dishwashing liquid as hand soap.If anyone else has any other ideas I’d be interested in hearing them too.

Tinder wrote:Thanks CC, some really good ideas for me to try there. I thought Bar Keepers Friend was just an American product then i discovered my local Asda sells it!

So does no-one else on the forum bother with house cleaning then lol ?

LOL Nah... when the mess gets too bad we just move!!

We have put down old carpets all over the livingroomfloor, so we vacuum a lot. The floor is covered with 5 different carpets so we can just throw one out and replace it if it gets bad, no carpetwash. And the rest of the cleaning in the livingroom I just do with normal water or vinegar water. The other rooms arent near the birdcage so I dont worry about them. I know the products arent toxic cos Denmark has pretty strict rules.

We changed to laminent and vinal floors. I use lemon water wherever possible. I had to ban Rambo from the living room unless someone is watching him. It is not easy to ban a pedestrian. He just sort of sneeks around quietly so I won't notice.

My wooden furniture is old and has been teethed by many so I just clean it with lemon water. I use furniture cover on the sofa and recliners and let the washer and dryer remove the hair. I use throw rugs between rooms to prevent tracking from one room to the other and vacume the floors about 3 times a week to get dust bunnies.

I would advocate for orderliness first. Put your furniture away and leave the floors plain and visible. Open all of your curtains or windows and, if appropriate, the doors to let some light and fresh air in.Sweep out everything from floor and gather the trash and throw it away. Turn on the vacuum cleaner and suck the dirt fro your carpet. Finally wipe the cobwebs and put everything back in order.